“Our main aim today was to try different directions with set-up and to get to know the tyres a bit better,” Rosberg said in a release.

“You never stop learning how to get the best out of the tires, so it has been a productive day from that perspective. We also did a bit of work on the brakes as this is an area I’m not one hundred percent happy with at the moment.”

“We’ve had a good few weeks on track but you are never at the maximum level of performance. There is always more to be found and we are constantly pushing to improve the car and ourselves as drivers.

“Having said that, the team is doing a fantastic job with this car from every perspective. Reliability, car performance, power unit performance: It’s all there and it’s a pleasure to be a part of a team with such positive momentum.”

Considering that Force India was ‘best of the rest’ in last weekend’s Grand Prix with Sergio Perez hitting the podium, it was fitting that the Silverstone squad tailed Merc again today with Nico Hulkenberg setting a P2 time of 1 minute, 36.064 seconds.

Hulkenberg logged 69 laps as the team’s focus progressed from short runs in the morning to longer stints in the afternoon. Perez will take over the VJM07 tomorrow in the desert.

Third on the time sheets belonged to Fernando Alonso of Ferrari (1 minute, 36.626 seconds), which struggled mightily last weekend with Alonso and Kimi Raikkonen coming home ninth and 10th.

The Spaniard also logged his own set of 69 laps as the Scuderia worked through various electronic and aero-measuring projects on their F14 T, whose reliability has been undone so far by a markedly slower pace compared to its rivals.

McLaren rookie Kevin Magnussen was the only other driver to break the 100-lap mark Tuesday, turning 102 laps and posting the fourth-fastest time of the day at 1 minute, 36.634 seconds.

Behind K-Mags was Williams pilot Valtteri Bottas, who was P5 on the day (1 minute, 37.305 seconds) despite running just 28 laps.

“Overall it was a good day as we managed to complete the program as planned,” Bottas said. “We then worked on set-up and we were quite experimental, so hopefully that will help in the next few races.”

Several other young guns also got in a good share of laps today in Bahrain. Russia’s Sergey Sirotkin logged 76 laps for Sauber, while Caterham’s Robin Frijns netted 63 before a hydraulic system leak ended his day early.

The toughest outing of the day belonged to Lotus and Pastor Maldonado, who could only grab 16 laps on the track before a pair of power unit-related issues stopped his progress.

“This is what testing is for, even though we would have preferred to have been able to complete more laps today,” said Maldonado. “I hope that Romain [Grosjean] can continue to work on our testing program tomorrow and hopefully have a more positive day.”